On my most recent trip to Vancouver with a couple friends we went out on a 4-hour excursion with Prince of Whales out of Granville Island in search of whales. We eventually stumbled upon a solitary humpback juvenile while on our way back to port. So technically we did “whale watching”. The real feature of the day was a pod of about 9 orcas that stayed with us for over an hour.
We were on the second tour of the day so the animals had already been found. We arrived near Thronbrough Bay in Howe Sound between Gambier Island and Gibsons. The orcas must have been finishing a feast of seals. We stayed with the animals as they leisurely traveled around Keats Island, through Barfleur Passage into the Strait of Georgia and the Salish Sea. We rounded Bowen Island as the afternoon tour picked up the pursuit.
I have been on whale watching tours before from Tierra Del Fuego to Seward and from Maui to the Greenland Sea. This was by far the longest sustained contact with such animals that I’ve ever seen. When coupled with the great weather, I could not have asked for a better experience. I took a lot of pictures but I also shot a bit of video. I edited it down to a couple minutes to get a feel. At the end you can see whalespout in the distance before the afternoon tour shows up.
